From: Ross A. Finlayson (raf@tiki-lounge.com)
Date: Fri May 18 2001 - 11:39:49 MDT
Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de wrote:
> Spike Jones wrote:
>
> > ...And it belongs to the first one there with the wherewithal
> > to enforce her will. spike
>
> The point is not get there with a self-rep machine, stripmine
> the iron mountain and ship produce back to earth. Getting there
> with a smart enough machine is a sufficiently high threshold
> already, not to mention shipping the stuff back and deorbiting
> it (getting a kiloton of stainless steel profiles falling on
> the top of your head out of the clear blue sky is probably not
> the best way to wake up on Sunday morning).
>
> The point is getting to the first rock outside this gravity well
> and to *stay* there. How lucky we are to have a big rock at our
> doorstep so that we don't have to design for microgravity and
> relativistic lag is still tolerable for teleoperation. (We're so
> lucky I'd clean suspect Anders putting it up there if this was
> a space RPG, to up the pace of the game).
>
> Once we've gotten that sustainable bridgehead in place, the solar
> system is ours.
About the ownership rights, it would seem to be like homesteading on the
frontier. Large organization might be able to put into place plans that
could reach these outposts first, as well, small organizations might
carry out similar plans. Thus, if people start landing on the moon,
there is almost first the aesthetic aspect, as almost all the humans on
Earth can see the moon at various times, thus that a goal of development
would be to be invisible to the naked eye from Earth. A low powered
telescope might be able to see the cities on the moon, which would have
light emissions controls in particular, to avoid disruption of
astronomy.
Then, if the land is considered frontier, then as we have already been
learning about how we must conserve and respect our planet's resources,
we would have that perspective as we consider what could actually take
place within a realistic timespan. As well, it is recognized that those
places could form their own governments, as well, they could be a part
of government on Earth, for example, having a postal code, and some
would probably be government outposts, for they would be among the
organizations at that scale.
About the asteroids, as they are mined they can be refit to monoliths.
Then, they can be spun to gravity, which is a reliable gravity
simulation mechanism, probably, and sown with Earth life.
One thing to consider is that we could engineer anaerobic space-hardy
mutations of Earth life. Engineering it is the difference between
allowing it to happen without intercession and not. Technology offers
many opportunities.
Ross
-- Ross Andrew Finlayson Finlayson Consulting Ross at Tiki-Lounge: http://www.tiki-lounge.com/~raf/ "It's always one more." - Internet multi-player computer game player
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